Michael Schnuerle v. Insight Communications Company, L.P.

376 S.W.3d 561, 2012 WL 3631378, 2012 Ky. LEXIS 104
CourtKentucky Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 23, 2012
Docket2008 SC 000789
StatusUnknown
Cited by63 cases

This text of 376 S.W.3d 561 (Michael Schnuerle v. Insight Communications Company, L.P.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Kentucky Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Michael Schnuerle v. Insight Communications Company, L.P., 376 S.W.3d 561, 2012 WL 3631378, 2012 Ky. LEXIS 104 (Ky. 2012).

Opinions

Opinion of the Court by

Justice VENTERS.

Appellants Michael Schnuerle, Amy Gilbert, Lance Gilbert, and Robin Wolff, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, filed a class action complaint in the Jefferson Circuit Court against their Internet service providers, Appellees Insight Communications Company, L.P., and Insight Communications Midwest, LLC (collectively, Insight). Insight’s Broadband High Speed Internet Service Agreement (Service Agreement) contained an arbitration clause that required customers to submit damage claims against Insight to arbitration, and it also barred class action litigation against Insight by its customers. The circuit court determined that the class action ban was enforceable, and therefore it dismissed Appellants’ complaint. The Court of Appeals affirmed. Because of that disposition, neither the circuit court nor the Court of Appeals addressed other issues, including Appellants’ challenge to the enforceability of the Service Agreement’s general arbitration clause. We granted discretionary review to consider the challenges to the enforceability of the arbitration agreement, as well as the class action waiver and confidentiality clauses contained therein. We granted Appellees’ cross-petition for discretionary review to enable a more complete resolution of the whole controversy, including the disputed choice of law provisions of the agreement and the effect of severability of the challenged provisions from the remaining portion of the arbitration agreement.

For the reasons stated below, we conclude that in cases governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, the decision of the United States Supreme Court in AT & T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, — U.S. -, 131 S.Ct. 1740, 179 L.Ed.2d 742 (2011) precludes enforcement of a state policy invalidating upon grounds of uncon-scionability, a contractual waiver of class action participation, where the unconscion-ability is based solely upon the fact that the dispute involves a large number of de minimis claims which are unlikely to be individually litigated. Consequently, in the dispute before this Court, the contrac[565]*565tual provision under which Appellants waived their right to participate in class action litigation is now enforceable under federal law. We also determine as follows: 1) that the Service Agreement’s choice of law provision is not enforceable, and that Kentucky law, rather than New York law, is applicable to our review; 2) that the Service Agreement’s general arbitration provision is not unconscionable, that it comports with Kentucky’s public policy preference favoring arbitration, and is therefore enforceable; and 3) that the provision imposing a confidentiality requirement upon the litigants to arbitration proceedings is void and is severable from the remaining portions of the agreement. As such, we affirm in part, reverse in part and remand to the Jefferson Circuit Court for entry of a final judgment consistent with this opinion.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Appellants are all Kentucky residents who entered into the Service Agreement with Insight for broadband Internet service in the area of Jefferson County, Kentucky. In order to receive service, the customers were required to either sign the Service Agreement or manifest their assent to the Service Agreement via the Internet.

The Service Agreement contains an arbitration clause. Within the arbitration clause are provisions under which customers agree not to enter into a class action lawsuit against Insight and not to divulge the results of any settlement reached through arbitration. The clause, however, does permit individual customers to pursue any claim of less than $1,500.00 through small claims court instead of proceeding to arbitration.

Insight’s 2006 effort to upgrade its high-speed Internet service left many of its customers, including Appellants, with service outages for varying lengths of time. Those outages generated a high volume of calls into Insight’s customer service department, which resulted in long wait times for customers to receive assistance. According to Appellants, once customers did get through, they received false and misleading information concerning the service interruption. They further allege that Insight acted improperly by failing to timely inform its customers about the outage, and by failing to protect customers “from deletion of information.”

Insight responds that it acknowledged the problem in a timely fashion and issued credits to 2,595 customers who notified the company of their particular outage problem. The company later issued a public apology for the disruptions and set up a voucher system allowing any other dissatisfied customers to request a credit for the interrupted service. Insight admits to monetary liability for any service it billed to customers while their Internet connection was down, and maintains that any dispute would simply require calculating the actual outage time, which it is willing to do under its customer service procedures.

Notwithstanding Insight’s efforts to address the problem, Appellants filed a complaint in Jefferson Circuit Court on behalf of themselves individually, and, pursuant to CR 23, on behalf of the putative class of all other Insight customers in Kentucky similarly situated. Causes of action were asserted based upon violations of the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act, KRS 367.170, et seq., breach of contract, and unjust enrichment.

Insight moved to dismiss the action and to compel arbitration pursuant to the mandatory arbitration clause contained in the Service Agreement. As noted above, the arbitration clause does not mandate arbi[566]*566tration of every dispute but, rather, it allows claims less than $1,500.00 to be litigated. There is no allegation that the claim of any individual customer would exceed $1,500.00. The typical claim would be in the range of $40.00. Thus, it is apparent that any member of the putative class would have the options of filing a suit in small claims court or proceeding to arbitration.

Appellants argued that the arbitration clause was unenforceable on the grounds that it was an unconscionable provision of an adhesion contract imposed upon them by a party with significantly greater bargaining power. Appellants also argued that the arbitration clause was communicated to customers in a manner that ensured few, if any, would read it; that they were forced to use Insight’s services because it was the only local broadband cable Internet provider; that they could not effectively pursue their claims on an individual basis; and that, because of the small amounts involved, individual customers would be unable to retain counsel willing to take the case.

The trial court granted Insight’s motion to compel arbitration and it dismissed the class action with prejudice, requiring claimants to pursue their remedy individually through arbitration or in small claims court as provided in the Service Agreement. The Court of Appeals affirmed the circuit court’s decision. We granted discretionary review.

On December 16, 2010, this Court rendered an opinion in this case. While Appel-lee’s petition for rehearing or modification of our opinion was pending, the United States Supreme Court rendered its opinion in AT & T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, supra,

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376 S.W.3d 561, 2012 WL 3631378, 2012 Ky. LEXIS 104, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/michael-schnuerle-v-insight-communications-company-lp-ky-2012.